Canada Yearbook - 1897

140 STATISTICAL YEAR-BOOK.
NICKEL.
In 1883 the first discovery of a deposit of nickeliferous pyrrhotite was
made while the Canadian Pacific Railway Company was making a cutting
through a small hill near Sudbury, in the District of Algoma,
Ontario. The ore, which contains on the average about 2 -25 per cent of
nickel, is' roasted and smelted into a copper-nickel matte, the usual
composition of which, from average analysis, is about as follows :—
Copper, 26-91 ; nickel, 14-14; iron, 31-335; sulphur, 26-95;
an d
cobalt, -935. The matte is also said to contain some ounces of platinum
to the ton. The amount of fine nickel in the matte produced at
the Sudbury mines in 1889-97 is given below.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF NICKEL.
Calendar Year. Lbs. Calendar Year. Lbs.
1889 . 830,477
1890..
1,435,742
1891..
4,020,027
1892
2,413,717
1893..
3,982,9S2
Subject to revision.
1894
1895
1S90
1897*
I
PETROLEUM.
4,907,430
3,888,525
3,397,113
3,997,647
Petroleum has been found in Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,
and particularly in the North-west Territories, where it seems
certain there is an immense unexplored oil region, but it is in the county
of Lambton, Ontario, whence most of the oil has been and is obtained,
Oil Springs and Petrolea being the largest oil-producing districts. The
oil is obtained at a depth of from 370 to 500 feet.
The following table contains the only trustworthy statistics of Canadian
production of oil that are available, and these figures do not give
the total production, since the quantity of crude oil, used as such, is not
included :—
CANADIAN PETROLEUM AND NAPHTHA INSPECTED AND CORRES­
PONDING QUANTITIES OF CRUDE OIL, 1881-97.
Year ended 30th June.
Refined Oils.
Crude
equivalent calculated.
1881
1S;S2
18S3
1884
1885
1886
1887
Imp. galls. Imp. galls.
6,406,783 12,813,566
5,910,787 13,131,993
6,970,550 15,490,111
7,656,011 19,140,027
7,661,617 19,154,042
8,149,472 21,445,979
8,243,962 21,694,637